Temperance
by scribls
Summary: One error leads to chaos. Jet. Azula.
1. Chapter One

***[9/8/09] This story is on temporary hiatus and under revision!*

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**Temperance**

**Disclaimer:** _Avatar: The Last Airbender_ is the property of Nickelodeon and other parties. No copyright infringement intended.

**Author's Note:** This is the revised version of Chapter One. To clear some things up, the current setting is Jet's forest and tree-house, post-Gaang (haven't decided on exact time yet). The Duke and Pipsqueak have already left. Azula was traveling through for a reason yet to be discovered.

Oh yeah, I wrote the first half to a piano rendition of "Onara" (theme song of _Dae Jang Geum_), so it's a bit...surreal?

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**Chapter One**

The trees moved. Nestled in boughs, crouched behind trunks…she felt them even before she saw them. Swinging, swaying, sinking. She sensed eeriness in the living, moving forest squeezing out the air, the empty spaces, the light.

She was not afraid. Looking back at the myriad leaves covering the sky, she saw them disappearing into the trees. They slinked about like predators. But they were small, and they were few. Not even a half-dozen. Children. She was never afraid.

In one effortless move, she could burn down the entire forest. She could kill the living trees. But she did not. Killing was a careless act. She was too good, too skilled, too close to perfection. So she always took prisoners. She prided herself for always taking prisoners. After all, nothing was more satisfying than seeing her captives crumble. Nothing except for the pure, cold bliss of victory.

They began retreating into the trees. She followed. Skipping from one branch to the next, she ensnared them and tore them down. Like insects, they returned, crawling up, up, up. Feeling a gentle whisper of leaves, she paused. A wiry figure leaned down, just over her, twin swords gleaming.

When her eyes caught the metal gleam, she didn't expect to find the piercing russet orbs that accompanied them. Or the vulgar grin.

He jumped into the void, the net of air between the trees, and she followed. Naturally. But she forgot about the twin swords until one wicked hook snagged onto her ankle. She faced him, and his grin bled. "I'll catch you when you fall," he whispered earnestly. Suddenly, she saw the ground above her, scattered with broken leaves and dirty children.

Twisting with uncommon precision, she leapt off the blade. But again, a joyous hook, and she collided into the waiting arms of a tree. Its twigs scratched, its cracked stubs crushed. Her breath hitched and ran backwards. Waves upon waves of pressure and heaviness rushed through her veins.

She fell.

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When Azula awoke, she found herself shaking and tightly bound to the post of a dingy shack. An intense pain coursed down the length of right leg, overshadowing the dull ache that flooded the rest of her body. She weakly flexed her hand. Nothing. Her eyes widened with disbelief as she tried to comprehend the extraordinary, damnèd luck that aided the dirty band of children.

Pushing aside her shock, Azula looked around the room, trying to find something she could use to escape. A small stool stood just out of her reach, but beyond that, the room seemed to be barren. Drawn to the light, she gazed through the cracks of the shack. Leaves, waving leaves mocked her. She craned her neck elsewhere instead.

A pair of stealthy eyes stared at her from a dim recess to her far left. She jumped in her bonds when she noticed. In acknowledgement of her, perhaps, the figure of a man emerged. So did his vulgar grin, haphazardly spouting a piece of wild grass from its corner. "Who are you," Azula spat, narrowing her eyes. The scruffy young man leaned towards her until his lips just brushed against her mussed hair. "Your worst nightmare."

Azula jerked sideways against her bonds, trying to hit the dirty, impudent, and in her mind, soon-to-be dead Earth Kingdom rat that was openly mocking her. She almost laughed when her head cracked against his cheek, making him grunt in pain and drop his irritating piece of grass. But then he grabbed a fistful of her hair and forced her to stop thrashing. Incensed, he leaned directly over her and muttered darkly, "Careful, Princess, you never know what us crazy rebels might do."

Burning gold scorched rich, earthy brown as the two enemies glared at each other in silence. The young man suddenly pulled away and left cursing under his breath. Azula allowed herself a sneer at her small victory, but soon began to grimace under the stabbing sensation in her leg. She closed her eyes and breathed deeply, reviewing the events of her first, humiliating defeat.

One error and she is captured. When did she become so careless?

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**Author's Note:** Like it? Hate it? Please review and thanks for reading!


	2. Chapter Two

**Disclaimer:** _Avatar: The Last Airbender_ is the property of Nickelodeon and other parties. No copyright infringement intended.

**Author's Note:** I've revised Chapter One. Chapter Two begins with Azula daydreaming/hallucinating/dreaming...

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**Chapter Two**

_Bright brown eyes…shining, smiling, flashing in the sun. They enthralled her. She followed them as they flew from tree to tree, ensnaring her into a whirlwind dance. But suddenly, the eyes dulled, they bled out their brightness until they were hollow circles devoid of light. All around her, the trees began to move, clawing at her until she slipped. The eyes watched her._

_I'll catch you when you fall…_

Azula winced as the door to the little shack slammed open, revealing a figure wrapped in bright sunlight. Lifting her head, she squinted at the figure. Once again, it was the boy with the vulgar grin. Except this time, he wasn't grinning.

He walked in and set a cup and a bowl down on the floor by the stool. The sweet aroma of food made her stomach tighten and her head ache. Four days had passed and all she had received were a few cups of water.

"What are you doing in the Earth Kingdom," the boy brusquely asked for what was possibly the tenth time.

Azula shifted slightly and gently stretched her neck. Her voice was weaker, but no less mocking than it had been when they first met. "Traveling, of course." Glancing at the boy's deepening glare, she smirked and continued, "What, a princess can't go sightseeing every once in a while? I don't know how it is in your little part of the back woods, but in my country…"

Suddenly, the boy grabbed the front of Azula's collar and growled, "Don't change the subject! What are you doing in the Earth Kingdom?"

Azula thought of duplicating what she had done four days earlier, but her body was too tired to comply. She stared at the boy's face, but had trouble focusing.

"I don't think that information's privy to dirty peasants like you."

He leaned towards her and in a very even tone murmured, "Don't think that I won't kill you just because you're a princess."

"I…" The smell of food and the pain in her body pounded inside her head until she could barely breathe. Struggling to regain her mental sharpness, she tried to still her shifting eyes until they met his. His face got blurrier every moment.

"Hey," she breathed out, "you lied."

The boy looked surprised and annoyed at the same time. "What?"

Azula frowned. His eyes were clearer than ever. But everything else was fading to black.

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**Author's Note:** Hmmm...I really should've thought out all the details before I began this story... Okay! Anyway, are the characters too OOC? Is the plot too contrived? Is the style too unpleasant? Please review and thanks for reading!


	3. Chapter Three

**Disclaimer:** _Avatar: The Last Airbender_ is the property of Nickelodeon and other parties. No copyright infringement intended.

**Author's Note:** Wow, thanks so much for your patience! Hopefully I'll update much more often from now on. I have a pretty clear idea for the ending already...

I've decided that this part of the story will take place somewhere between the episodes "Jet" and "The Avatar State." Eventually, it'll then skip to...I'm thinking "Lake Laogai." No filler, all Jetzula action. :)

By the way, if you missed it, my explanation for Azula's lack of firebending is that her broken leg disrupts her chi.

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**Chapter Three**

Azula woke to icy water stinging her face. Blinking away the drops trickling into her eyes, she saw the boy pick up the bowl and spoon. With a sour expression on his face, he pulled the stool towards her and sat down. Azula opened her mouth to speak, but suddenly choked as the boy shoved a spoonful of porridge down her throat. The boy grimaced and swiftly grabbed Azula's jaw to force her head to the side until she stopped coughing. Azula tried to glare, but her eyes barely narrowed above cheeks prickling with shame.

The boy threw the bowl to the floor, stood up, and and quickly stomped out the door of the hut. The stool clattered as it tipped back from the force of his irritation. Azula stared down at the porridge in disgust. Although she had managed to elude it for the past few days, the unthinkable finally wormed its way into her mind, birthing a tiny well of panic deep inside her gut. What if she died here? Alone, disgraced, miserable. Was it her fate to die inside the tiny, dirty hut of a rebel band of Earth Kingdom brats?

This was her first mission, chasing down that idiot brother of hers, where ever he was, and dragging him back to the Fire Nation. It should have been effortless. She was born blessed. She was the top strategist in the military. She was one of the most powerful firebenders the world had ever known. She was, thanks to her brother's terrible ineptitude, the next heir to the throne. So how did a short interlude to dispatch a simple nuisance turn into a nightmare? An unfamiliar wetness began to pool in her eyes. She was too weak to think any more.

The door swung open and the boy was back, a bucket clutched in his fist. He plopped the bucket down next to the fallen stool. Sighing, he righted the stool and sat down. Azula focused her eyes on the cracks of light coming through the door.

"Let's try this," she heard him murmur, "again." His voice was smoother, softer, gentler, carefully tempered to hide an edge.

She felt something warm dabbing at her forehead. Her eyes flickered toward his, but they were preoccupied with the lower half of her face. He was carefully drying off the icy water, now lukewarm, he had thrown on her earlier to jolt her awake. Working his way lower, he washed away the spit and bits of porridge from her chin. She felt her cheeks heating up faintly as he slowly rubbed the dampened cloth across her lips.

His hands were almost unsteady, but they moved with painstaking tenderness, as if crafting a very delicate object, or shielding a tenuous flame from the air dancing around it. There was tumult dwelling beneath his skin, vigilantly masked by his unusual concentration. After he finished, his eyes lingered where his hands could not. She noticed.

He picked up the bowl of porridge. This time, he held the spoon up to her mouth. She turned her head away almost imperceptibly and let her gaze drift to the floor. He moved the spoon closer.

"Eat it. You'll die if you don't." His voice sounded a little rougher than before.

"That's...what you want, isn't it? For revenge." she asked softly, vulnerably. The boy tensed imperceptibly. She blinked and two tears cascaded down her cheeks.

"You win." She whispered.

He dropped the spoon into the bowl and quickly reached towards her. Just as his fingers fluttered against her skin, he recoiled slightly, hesitating. She flinched as well, unused to another's touch upon her face. He hastily wiped away the two streaks with his thumb and the back of his hand. Then, setting the bowl down, he slid from the stool to a crouch beside her. The ropes binding her hands together behind her back gradually loosened.

"I've got no use for a dead princess," he mumbled.

Getting up, he surveyed the scene before him. He cast an ambivalent glance at the loosened ropes. He stood motionless for a couple of moments, then turned to leave. When he reached the door, he paused.

"Don't try to escape." He sounded more like he was reminding himself of an errand than warning a valuable prisoner. He opened the door and stepped out.

Azula stared at the closed door. Gingerly, she pulled her hands from the ropes and rubbed her chafed wrists. She wrinkled her nose as she caught sight of the bowl of porridge sitting inconspicuously beside her on the ground. She picked it up and began to eat, voraciously shoving down everything in the bowl to assuage her treacherous body.

Once she was done, she laid down, stretching out her aching back. Running her fingers over the coarse wood of the floor, she vaguely recalled how his skin felt against hers. She frowned, quelling the thought. Instead, she evoked the look in his eyes when he saw her tears, those glistening jewels that stripped away all her defenses.

She smirked. This was going to be easier than she thought.

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**Author's Note:** Ahh, Azula...gradually succumbing to Stockholm Syndrome? Then again, she's a master schemer if anything. Poor Jet doesn't stand chance. :D Hope you guys enjoyed! Are the characters getting OOC? Is the plot realistic (not that there is much...)? How do you like the character interaction?

Thanks for reading! Please review!


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